KBA North America, a global press manufacturer based in Dallas, Texas, announces that Malnove, the largest independent folding carton manufacturer in North America, has chosen to equip its Jacksonville, Florida facility with a new KBA Rapida 142 seven-color sheetfed press with anilox coater and delivery extension. The 56-inch press is due to be installed during the first quarter of 2011.

"We installed the first large-format KBA Rapida 142 in the U.S. in our Omaha plant in 1997,” says president Paul Malnove. “We have continued to support a strategy based on a common press platform across all of our facilities. The benefit to our customers is that we are able to produce any carton, for any customer, in any plant with the same quality and pictorial results. The Rapida 142 supports that strategy.”

The new press will bring many dynamic strengths and benefits to the Jacksonville facility. A key feature on the new press is its inline KBA Densitronic Pro, a combined density and color measuring system for quality control both during and after printing. Currently, Malnove is utilizing an offline closed loop color control system. Unlike other systems, Densitronic Pro permits direct measurements within the image. Deviations from defined target densities, color values and other quality parameters (dot gain, trapping, etc.) are recognized and displayed not only reliably, but also very quickly in comparison to hand-held measuring devices. With integration for online control, the density and spectral deviations are converted into corrective adjustments for the individual ink keys. The Densitronic Pro controls the density and spectral parameters of each sheet by measuring along control strips or directly on the image. Malnove plans to connect both its existing KBA Rapida 142 press and its new press to Densitronic Pro to receive the benefits on both presses.

In addition to its KBA Densitronic Pro technology, Malnove’s new KBA Rapida 142 56-inch press is equipped with a full array of automation, including fully-automatic plate changing, which changes all the plates on the press sequentially, thus increasing productivity and saving critical time. The press has all of the top-flight automation to reduce makeready.

Malnove plans to continue its growth in UV printing and its new KBA Rapida 142 press in Jacksonville is UV-ready. “Inline UV is a growth market opportunity for Malnove,” says Chris Travis, director of technology at KBA. “Several key benefits include increased quality and throughput by allowing immediate post-print die cutting/blanking, and finishing operations; speed-to-market response time is improved and enables same-day processing; dramatic new effects in ink including ultra gloss, gloss/matte, raised, textured, metallic, pearlescent, and tinted opaque; an emissions-free VOC- (volatile organic compound) free process; and lower energy costs since a multi-position, energy-efficient UV drying system uses less electricity overall than end-of-press only conventional IR/Hot Air drying system.”

Founded in 1948, Malnove designs and converts high-quality folding carton packaging at its three plants located in Omaha, Nebraska; Jacksonville, Florida; and Clearfield, Utah. Malnove is committed to delivering sustainable value through its commitment to its three tenets – intelligent packaging design, continuous process improvement, and speed-to-market.